Seventy years ago, the then British prime minister Winston Churchill declared May 8, 1945, to be “Victory in Europe Day” after a gruelling five-year war against Nazi Germany and its allies. In making plans to commemorate this historic day, the present Leader of the House of Commons wrote to Church Leaders as follows: “VE day 70 is an opportunity to remember the sacrifice and sheer determination of the people who saw us through this dark period, give thanks to those who so bravely played their part and celebrate peace and reconciliation. The government would like to invite churches to contribute to the weekend’s events with a ringing of bells, where they are able and in a manner of their choosing”. As “Tower Captain”, Hywel Lloyd was asked to organise such a ringing at Sulgrave Church on Sunday 9th May. See the next page for photographs of this event, with an opportunity to hear the bells and read some memories of Sulgrave in 1945 and of those from the village who served during the five years of conflict leading up to VE Day.

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The May Queen is crowned by the Brackley Town Mayor

On a lovely day of bright sunshine, sandwiched between two stormy periods, a large crowd filled the gardens of Sulgrave Manor to celebrate May Day with many traditional events.

See next page for more photos.

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Photo: Chris Behan

On Sunday afternoon 3rd May, Little Street and Helmdon Road in Sulgrave were temporarily closed to other traffic whilst the remaining runners in this year’s “Wings for Life World Run” passed through the village. This event, which raises money for research into spinal cord injury, involves runners starting “en masse” at Silverstone Motor Racing Circuit and following a route through the lanes and villages of South Northamptonshire. Thirty minutes after the start they are slowly followed by a “catcher car” and each runner drops out when he or she is caught. The last runner to be caught is declared the winner of the UK event. Similar runs take place at the same time in many other countries and the competitor who covers the longest distance is the world winner.

See more details and pictures on the following page.

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As can be seen from the above Statement of Persons Nominated for Election, there are six nominations for the six vacancies on Sulgrave Parish Council. There will thus be no election of Parish Councillors. The six persons nominated will be declared elected and will form the new Parish Council.

Photo: Colin Wootton

Eclipse of sun on Friday 20th March 2015 as seen from Dippers Cottage at 09.14.

On Sunday 31st May a number of Sulgrave gardens will be open to the public in aid of charity, under the National Gardens Scheme. Nationally, this scheme raises more than £2.5 million each year for nursing, caring and gardening charities and more than £25 million has been donated in the last 15 years.

More details to follow.

Vodafone’s well deserved reputation as the only reliable network in the village has taken a knock in recent weeks, with weak and intermittent contacts.

James Garnett is a corporate user of the network as Commercial Manager for Vodafone Group Plc at IBM Sales and Distribution. He has taken this matter up with the Vodafone Network Team at Newbury, who have responded as follows:

 
From Vodafone Network Team

Good evening James,
 
Thank you for your email.
 
I have checked your case for updates and it looks as though we have a couple of issues to contend with to get the site up and running. The main one being a line of sight issue due to overgrown trees causing the loss of service coupled with a hardware failure. Our engineers have a visit to the site booked for the end of the month to swap out some hardware while we await the attendance of a tree surgeon to resolve the line of site problem. The replacing of the hardware should hopefully bring the site back online but until the tree surgeon attends to the line of sight issue the service will expectedly continue to be degraded.
 
We do not have any confirmed date for the attendance of the tree surgeon at present but we will continue to monitor your case for updates and will be in touch with you when we receive them.

We can only apologise for the inconvenience caused and the delay in resolving the issues affecting you.

 
Look for further information from James on this website as the matter proceeds.

On a raw, cold and misty Sunday morning, friends and neighbours of Chris and Melanie Kirkpatrick attended a “topping out” ceremony to celebrate the completion of their own construction of a new dry stone wall between The Chestnuts and Madam’s Close.

More pictures on the next page.

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Christmas Eve, 24th December 2014. The twenty-fourth and final  contribution to the Village Advent Calendar Windows, at Church Cottage, Church Street.

More pictures on the next page.

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23rd December 2014. The twenty-third  contribution to the Village Advent Calendar Windows, at Hill Farm House, Manor Road.

More pictures on the next page.

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